After two years of teasers, a controversial rebrand, and a factory that went quiet, Jaguar has finally pulled the wraps off the production Type 01. It’s a long, low, three-motor electric grand tourer with 1,016 horsepower, and it carries the hopes of an entire brand on its very wide shoulders.
- The Type 01 uses three electric motors to make 1,016 hp and 1,365 Nm of torque, and it rides on a dedicated Jaguar platform called JEA.
- Jaguar is targeting about 400 miles of EPA range in the U.S. from a 118-kWh battery.
- U.S. sales are expected to start in mid-2027, with pricing expected to begin at roughly $130,000.
A Factory Shutdown With Few Modern Parallels
Jaguar Land Rover stopped building Jaguars in December 2025 to get ready for this car. That’s a rare move. No automaker had completely paused building vehicles for a model changeover since 1927, when Henry Ford shut his River Rouge plant for six months to switch from the Model T to the Model A.
That gives you a sense of the stakes. The Type 01 will never offer a gas engine. It looks like no Jaguar before it, and it will cost about twice as much as any Jaguar sold in America in recent years, with a U.S. starting price of roughly $130,000. Jaguar boss Rawdon Glover has called the launch one of the most important in the company’s 90-year history, and insiders expect the U.S. to be the car’s biggest market.
JLR says the Type 01 is designed, engineered, and built in Britain, with production starting in 2027. The car made its world premiere in New York, which fits nicely with how much Jaguar is counting on American buyers.
Built From a Clay Model Nobody Wanted to Change
About five years ago, chief engineer Jon Darlington, a 31-year JLR veteran, got his first look at a clay model called Project Pantera. It had won an internal design contest, and management wanted the production car to keep its very long hood, very low roof, and sheer surfaces. Darlington admitted the design took some getting used to. He also told his bosses that keeping that shape while fitting a battery big enough for 400 miles of range would be almost impossible without a bespoke EV platform.
There was little pushback. Jaguar found the car didn’t work on JLR’s MLA-Flex platform, which sits under the new Range Rover Electric, or on anyone else’s platform either. So the team built JEA from scratch.
The clever part is up front. That long nose let engineers place 32 of the battery’s 200 prismatic cells ahead of the front bulkhead. A pair of aluminum structures called tri-axis nodes route crash forces around the sides of the cabin. Moving those cells forward kept the under-floor battery just 5.9 inches deep, so it sits lower to the ground.
The result stayed very close to the original clay model. Designers say no surface or edge on the production car sits more than 0.3 inch away from where it was on the clay. A single aluminum panel on each side, nicknamed “the impossible panel,” runs 118 inches from the top of the A-pillar all the way to the rear of the car. Refining the tooling for it took 1,500 hours alone.
Proportions That Play Tricks on Your Eyes
The Type 01 is 206.1 inches long and rides on a 126.0-inch wheelbase. That’s actually a touch smaller than a Mercedes-Benz EQS in both length and wheelbase. But the Jaguar stands only 55.2 inches tall, compared to 59.5 inches for the Mercedes, and it skips a rear window entirely. The cabin sits so far back that the front seats are nearly midway between the axles.
There’s some heritage hiding in the math. The distance from the front door cutline to the front axle is almost 36 inches, about 17 percent of the car’s length. That’s the same ratio as the classic E-Type. Huge 23-inch wheels wear 255/35 tires up front and 295/35 tires out back, and a 21-inch wheel with winter tires is optional for snowbelt drivers.
One British customer at a recent clinic told Glover that whoever drives this thing should wear a cape. Glover was pleased, since drama and presence were the whole point.
Slippery Shape, Serious Power
Despite its blunt front end, the Type 01 is the most aerodynamic production Jaguar ever, with a drag coefficient of 0.23. Engineers ran more than 7,000 aero tests and 1,500 simulations to get there. Shaping the front corners added 12 miles of range, and active cooling shutters that close when the car doesn’t need extra air added another 27.
An active rear spoiler moves to 7 degrees or 21 degrees depending on speed and drive mode, and it can produce up to 165 pounds of downforce on the rear axle. The air suspension uses dual-rate springs and twin-valve shocks, and it lowers the car 0.6 inch above 65 mph to cut drag.
Power comes from three motors making 1,016 hp and 1,365 Nm, or about 1,007 lb-ft. Jaguar quotes a range of up to 720 km in some markets, and its U.S. goal is an EPA-rated 400 miles.
What to Watch Before Mid-2027
The Type 01 is a huge gamble, and Jaguar knows it. It’s priced well above any Jaguar Americans have bought lately, and it looks nothing like the cars many fans remember. Even the famous leaper logo has shrunk to small outlines etched into brass-look strips on the front fenders. If you’re interested in one, keep an eye on final pricing details and the official EPA range rating as the mid-2027 launch gets closer. Those two numbers will tell you whether this cape-worthy GT makes sense for your garage.
